The Electronic Journal of Information Systems Evaluation provides critical perspectives on topics relevant to Information Systems Evaluation, with an emphasis on the organisational and management implications

Abstract

The increasing number of Jordanian Internet users should naturally be reflected in e‑commerce conversions. However, this is not the case. While social‑media users in Jordan are becoming more engaged and involved in social‑media transactions, e‑commerce activities have not experienced a similar trend. This issue has been identified in the literature as the e‑commerce awareness paradox, wherein customers are partially aware but are not engaged. This points to a missing link between different levels of awareness and e‑commerce process engagement.
This paper presents the results of research that has investigated and evaluated the awareness of e‑commerce among customers. In order to gain insight into customers’ awareness, data were collected from 386 participants. The data analysis identified that partial and full customer awareness are critical factors in the adoption and success of e‑commerce. Furthermore, four distinctive levels of awareness are identified, namely awareness of products and services (AOP/S), awareness of payment (AOP), awareness of delivery (AOD) and awareness of brand (AOB). This research contributes to the literature by providing a novel framework in which levels of awareness are mapped to four main processes of electronic commerce. The framework will be useful to e‑commerce practitioners as a basis to evaluate prospective customers’ levels of awareness, thereby to assist identifying precisely where they need to focus on the online acquisition journey.